


anything you lose

by Rayellah



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Non-Graphic Violence, Non-Linear Narrative, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 02:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6733654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rayellah/pseuds/Rayellah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atem got bit three weeks in when he slammed between Yuugi and a zombie.</p><p>Yuugi had immediately reached for his bag to get bandages, medicine, something, they could fix this—</p><p>There was nothing. They both knew there was nothing, but he had to look. He had to try.</p>
            </blockquote>





	anything you lose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fiones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiones/gifts).



> a zombie au one-shot. i miiiight expand this into a longer fic eventually, but for the moment i only have time for something short!

Atem got bit three weeks in when he slammed between Yuugi and a zombie.

Yuugi had immediately reached for his bag to get bandages, medicine, _something_ , they could fix this—

There was nothing. They both knew there was nothing, but he had to _look_. He had to try.

_\--_

They all work well together — different kinds of smarts, different strengths, for instance: the way Jounouchi can make anything into a weapon, and Honda’s determination not to let anything stand between him and saving someone, and Yuugi’s fierce desire to _live_ and to keep everyone else alive, that flares up behind his quiet demeanour when nobody’s looking, and the way Anzu acts as a tether that holds them together and can knock the head off a zombie when she wants to, and... and...

And the way Atem keeps them all going. Always that.

_\--_

There’s still blood down the front of Atem’s jacket, and that detail is what makes Yuugi’s eyes mist up with tears. That’s dangerous, though, because with his eyes all fogged up like that, there’s nothing to separate what was Atem from _what-was-Atem_ , and it’s just this person he cared about so, so, so much stumbling closer and closer and closer.

Yuugi considers just letting what-was-Atem bite him — surely there are worse ways to die (there are) (he had held Atem’s hand the whole time).

But he shakes his head clear, aims his gun, and with a quiet _forgive me_ , he pulls the trigger.

_\--_

Seto makes his way east. Seto goes east toward Atem, because Atem is the only thing he knows how to run towards. He ignores the screaming, the zombies’ moans, the cries of pain. He ignores how the towns he passes through are starting to get more and more blood-spattered.

One foot in front of the other, he says to himself, and so he keeps going -- one foot in front of the other, east and east and east. If he has to tear down the wilderness and drain every river to find Atem, he will.

_\--_

What you have to understand is this: some people are immune, or have a natural resistance, or _something._

Of course, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. They all have bitemarks somewhere, you _can’t_ get lucky enough to avoid that, or not over and over and over again. And all of them screamed. Except Seto. Seto’s been silent for a while now, is quiet when he winds bandages around the purple tooth-scars twining up and down his arms. Seto doesn’t make a sound. He smashes crowbars into the heads of what used to be people, he breaks spines, he glares at Yuugi, and all of them, and Yuugi, and he stays silent. So silent.

Nobody says anything to him, either. They figure it’s best to let him grieve in his way. _I hate you all_ , his eyes say, _I wish you had all died with Atem and Mokuba_. Yuugi can see that, and Yuugi simply nods.

_\--_

“A corpse is a corpse,” says Seto to Atem. “They’re already dead, they’re just too stupid to know it.”

“They’re _hurting_ ,” Seto hears Yuugi say from his left, where he decidedly _isn’t_ looking, a voice he carefully _isn’t_ acknowledging (just like all their voices) (except Atem’s) (of course).

“They’re _nothing_ ,” he shoots back, and doesn’t need to look to know that Yuugi flinched. Of _course_ he did. “You’re too late.”

_\--_

Mokuba dies while Seto is still chest-deep in a grave, and he can’t help thinking: _a life for a life._ That’s his first thought. His first stupid, irrational thought.

His second thought is: _no, he’s not dead._ His third thought is something along the lines of: _oh no oh no oh no._ His fourth thought is: _run_. So he does.

_\--_

The first of the infected, well, people called them _mayflies_ , but Yuugi thinks mosquitoes would be a better term.

Mayflies just die. Mosquitoes die too, but they’ll infect you first.

_\--_

Some people are immune, but some are not. And some are _more_ resistant than others.

They learned this pretty early on. Not all the scars they have came from strangers. Atem lasted pretty long, all things considered.

_\--_

Sometimes they consider giving up, but never do they consider _not_ helping people. Even when people stumble toward them, tired and pale and shaking, with scarves knotted around their necks, fidgeting with long sleeves like there’s something underneath, even when people approach them with ill intent, Atem wouldn’t turn any of them away, looks at Yuugi and waits for Yuugi to nod (Yuugi always nods) (Yuugi never considers giving up), and says: _yes_. Says _let us help_. Says _we must try._

And Jounouchi thinks about his sister. Their mother took her somewhere safe, apparently. But.

And Honda thinks about heading north, where it’s cold, apparently too cold for the disease to spread. But.

And Anzu thinks about the people they’ve lost already. But.

They can’t. They can’t give up. Seto looks at them and thinks: _imagine_ _having something to hope for_. And he has that, for a little while. Until he doesn’t.


End file.
